Students Lead A Call For Peace

WEST HARTFORD — The spirit of student activism revealed itself outside town hall as hundreds of local students and community residents rallied for peace in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

Students, parents and residents gathered on the front steps of the town hall auditorium as the sun began to set Thursday evening. Many students of Hall High School's Human Rights Coalition, wearing light blue shirts that read, ``Breaking Chains for Peace,'' stood next to South Main Street and held bright placards and posters advocating peace. Others wielded petitions and letters soliciting signatures in support of peace.

Several local religious leaders, officials and students spoke passionately against the situation in Darfur, a region in Sudan in northern Africa. In recent years, the region has been the site of sweeping violence that has seen about 200,000 ethnic blacks killed in a campaign of racial extermination that some call a genocide. The ongoing strife has also displaced upwards of 2.5 million people.

Allegra Levy, 16, a senior at Hall and organizer of the rally, asked students to look around them and appreciate their privileged existence. She implored them to use the advantages of their community to defend those less fortunate.

Throughout the rally, Levy and her fellow students said they sought to increase awareness of the problem and inspire a sense of activism not commonly seen in today's students.

``Many people have said that since the Vietnam War, student activism is dead,'' Levy said at the start of the rally. ``Well, all of you are proof that student activism is not only alive, but thriving.''

The Human Rights Coalition and the school's Amnesty International Club, which is led by Levy, sponsored the rally.

Geoff Carr, Hall's student representative to the board of education, told rally participants that people have a responsibility to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.

In his own address, state Sen. Jonathan Harris of West Hartford led students in numerous chants and encouraged them to keep up their efforts.

``Together we can end hatred. Together we can end the bigotry. Together we can end the violence. Together we can end the killing. Together we can end the injustice,'' Harris said.

After the rally, Levy happily noted that local student activism was alive and well.

``I think everyone will leave with so much more than they came with,'' she said.